Night Watch: LONDON/The City – Tehran likes to call Britain “the old fox” due to its long, historical involvement in West Asia (Middle East) affairs. Imperial London played a leading role in drawing the current boundaries of a lot of the nations in the region after World War I, which coincided with the last of the Ottoman Empire. I suspect that is the reason Tehran is having al-Qaeda take advantage of the substantial connections and movement between Pakistani nationals and their relatives living in Britain and not just in London. Industrial cities and major population centers north of London like, Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield also have large Asian populations and have become an active recruiting ground for members in extremist Islamic terror cells. Security officials have said universities are more of a source of recruitment than mosques. [AKI]

AKI reports that counter terrorism officials and anti-terror police actually call the July 7, bombings last year on London’s urban transport system, “just the beginning”. Almost exactly one year later, July 11 this year, a similar attack took place on the Mumbai commuter train systems in India. Officials in London say the cells are organized in a similar way as the IRA organized its cells to carry out bomb attacks. Oddly enough in 1995 CBS News Radio announced that Iran was trying to link up with the IRA. I believe BBC Radio carried the same announcement. Apparently the cells are headed by a “quartermaster” who is responsible for recruiting and weaponry. Each cell is involved in several plots simultaneously. A “mastermind” controls several cells and is probably the one with direct contacts with the state sponsor, either Tehran or Islamabad.

Tehran has al-Qaeda target young men in their late teens or early 20’s initially with religious instruction, indoctrination. The next stage is political teachings which quickly becomes anti-Western rhetoric, in Britain’s case, this is where their historical record could be mentioned. All last year Tehran also accused Britain of causing unrest in Iran’s southwestern provinces along the Persian Gulf, where Britain used to have a lot of contacts with the Iranian-Arab tribal communities. Just like London used to have contacts with the Afghani-Pakistani tribes northwest of India. The final stage is operational training for the most devoted to the call and hateful of the enemy. Now Islamic radicals from all these regions are being directed by Tehran in an effort to cause major damage to one of the principal Allies and what Tehran’s current government sees as not only as one of its historical enemies but also as a major present day international rival, especially for influence and access to Central Asia’s resources.

Britain’s intelligence service MI5 now has Joint Regional Offices in the three cities mentioned besides London. The terrorism alert rating here in Britain is “severe” which means they belive a terrorist attack is likely and possibly on the same level as 9-11. The anti-terrorism police say their hard evidence is based on activities they have observed, plots they have disrupted and forthcoming trials of arrested members of these cells.

This is Tehran’s way of saying thank you to Britain’s government and establishment for having no economic embargo against them. If Tehran was able to use al-Qaeda to severely damage London’s financial district-The City it would cause temporary disruption in world financial markets.

Willard Payne is an international affairs analyst who specializes in International Relations. A graduate of Western Illinois University with a concentration in East-West Trade and East-West Industrial Cooperation, he has been providing incisive analysis to NewsBlaze. He is the author of Imagery: The Day Before.